2:50 pm: Bush, Obama and 3 ex-presidents
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WASHINGTON (AP) - An entire generation has gone by since the nation last saw this tableau of American history: every living U.S. president together at the White House.
Consider it time for a reunion among the members of one of the world's most elite clubs, plus the one man about to join it - Barack Obama.
Picking up on an idea from Obama, President George W. Bush on Wednesday was hosting a lunch for the incoming president and the three former presidents: Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter. It will be the first time all the presidents have gathered at the White House since 1981.
Bush and Obama also will meet privately for roughly 30 minutes in the Oval Office before the lunch. That one-on-one meeting, coming just 13 days before Obama's inauguration, is more likely to focus on grim current events, with war in the Gaza Strip and the economy in a recession.
Obama has sought to strike a balance as the power curve bends his way. Before even taking office, he is publicly rallying Congress behind a massive economic stimulus plan. But he remains deferential to Bush on foreign affairs and will not comment on Israel's raging conflict with Hamas on grounds that doing so would be dangerous for the United States.
"You can't have two administrations running foreign policy at the same time," Obama said at a news conference just ahead of his meeting with Bush. "You simply can't do it."
White House press secretary Dana Perino said that Bush and Obama have quickly developed a good relationship, in part because "they've been able to keep their conversations private." But she said the two leaders are all but certain to review the Middle East and the economy.
Vice President-elect Joe Biden also held a private meeting with former President Bush at the White House on Wednesday morning.
Considering the bond they hold in history, U.S. presidents gets together infrequently, particularly at the White House. And when they are in the same room, it is usually for a milestone or somber moment - a funeral of a world leader, an opening of a presidential library, a commemoration of history.
Not this time.
The White House says Obama suggested the idea of a presidential gathering when he met Bush in the Oval Office in November. And Bush went for it.
"It's going to be an interesting lunch," Bush told an interviewer recently. When asked what the five men would talk about, Bush said: "I don't know. I'm sure (Obama's) going to ask us all questions, I would guess. If not, we'll just share war stories."
They have plenty of those, political and otherwise. Their paths to power have long been entwined.
Carter lost the presidency to Ronald Reagan, whose running mate was George H.W. Bush. Bush later won election but lost after one term to Clinton. Then Bush's son, the current president, defeated Clinton's vice president, Al Gore. And this year Obama won after long linking his opponent, John McCain, to Bush.
Those campaign rivalries tend to soften over time as presidents leave the White House and try to adopt the role of statesmen - although Carter, even as an ex-president, has had some critical public words for the current president's foreign policy.
All five men were to pose for a group photo in the Rose Garden, but a January rainstorm scrapped that plan. So the noontime photo opportunity - to be the media's only glimpse of them - was moved indoors to the Oval Office instead. The presidents and Obama will then have lunch for an hour in a private dining room off the Oval Office, where no one else was expected to join them.
"All of us would love to be flies on the wall and listening to that conversation," White House press secretary Dana Perino said.
She added, "I'm sure their conversation will range from everything from personal experiences here - I'm sure they'll talk a little bit about raising children in the White House, raising children when you're a public figure and how to protect them."
